The Week in Spandex – The Dark Knight Rises, Man of Steel, The Wolverine, Thor: The Dark World, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and more

Our weekly round up of the latest news stories from the world of screen superheroes, including The Dark Knight Rises, Man of Steel, The Wolverine, Thor: The Dark World, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Hulk, Kick-Ass 2, Wonder Woman and more…

There’s just over a week now until the epic conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight saga arrives on Blu-ray and DVD, and over the past few days we’ve been treated to a sneak peek at some of the special features set to accompany The Dark Knight Rises’ home entertainment release. Be sure to check out a new promotional image of Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle and a short Catwoman featurette [see here], along with behind-the-scenes clips exploring the destruction of the Gotham Rogues stadium and Tom Hardy’s transformation into Bane [see here]. And speaking of of the brutal villain, some early concept art has also arrived online (which features a more traditional, comic-book influenced mask), in addition to a batch of 45 behind-the-scenes images from his bone-crunching sewer showdown with Christian Bale’s Batman…

…As the clock ticks down to the release of The Dark Knight Rises, Warner Bros. has also launched a new marketing campaign offering fans the chance to unlock an “exclusive reward” from Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel by sharing this link on various social networking sites. With a new trailer set to debut in cinemas before Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey next month, it’s probably safe to assume that this will be some kind of teaser, similar to Marvel’s unveiling of a sneak peek at the Iron Man 3 trailer last month. Speaking of the new Man of Steel trailer, Zack Snyder took a moment to discuss his excitement about the forthcoming preview, as well as praising Henry Cavill and Michael Shannon for their work as Kal-El and his Kryptonian nemesis General Zod [see here], while it also appears that Tahmoh Penikett (Smallville, Battlestar Galactica) has been confirmed as appearing in the film, with a rumour emerging that his character ‘Henry Ackerdson’ could be an alias for Metallo…

…While Warner Bros. has Man of Steel on its upcoming slate of DC movies, a worrying report emerged this week suggesting that an internal power struggle between Warner executives Bruce Rosenblum, Kevin Tsujihara and Jeff Robinov has slowed development on future DC adaptations such as The Flash, although presumably the studio still plans to push ahead with its Justice League feature, which is expected to go up against Joss Whedon’s The Avengers 2 in 2015. Be sure to check out the Martin Deer’s article ‘The Worrying Truth About Warner Bros. and DC Comics’, where he discusses this reported power struggle and its impact on the studio’s DC Comics superhero output [see here]…

…Superman fans may have an extra reason to catch Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey next month, but reports that the Man of Steel trailer would be accompanied by a first trailer for The Wolverine have been shot down by director James Mangold, who took to Twitter to announce that we can expect our first glimpse of Hugh Jackman’s latest X-Men outing early next year. Meanwhile, Jackman also took a moment to credit his buddy (and Man of Steel star) Russell Crowe for helping him to secure his now signature role way back when Bryan Singer was casting the original X-Men: “Bryan Singer asked Rusty [we assume Crowe] to do Wolverine, and he said, ‘Nah mate I’ve just done Gladiator, it’s not for me but you should look at this guy…'”

…Moving on to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and The Daily Mail posted some new photos from the Greenwich set of Thor: The Dark World featuring Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster and Stellan Skarsgard’s Erik Selvig, while some potential scene details courtesy of Expederest: “All the rubble and stuff is from a spaceship that crashes into the grounds. It’ll be added with CGI later on. So will more of the damage caused by the crash… Malekith [Christopher Eccleston] leads an army of elves over the rubble, which is where the ship would of crash landed… From what I remember, there are two worlds occupying the same space, and it has something to do with the Prime Meridian Line… So the whole “two worlds blending together” thing could be true. I vaguely remember them saying it has a mystical or magical aspect about it.” Meanwhile, both Chris Hemsworth and Anthony Hopkins have been speaking to MTV about the upcoming sequel, with Hopkins confirming that “I haven’t been in the film that much” and that he has one encounter with Eccleston’s Malekith the Accursed. So, you have to wonder if that spells bad news for the All-Father…

…A couple of weeks back it was announced that Dane DeHann (Chronicle), Brady Corbet (Melancholia) and Alden Ehrenreich (Beautiful Creatures) were under consideration for the role of Harry Osborn in the Sony superhero sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but it’s since been announced that four new names are in contention, with director Marc Webb said to have screen tested Douglas Booth (Romeo and Juliet, Noah), Sam Claflin (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Snow White and the Huntsman), Eddie Redmayne (My Week with Marilyn, Les Miserables) and Boyd Holbrook (Hatfields & McCoys, The Host) alongside Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker…

…During a promotional interview for his latest film Life of Pi, director Ang Lee spoke to Vulture about his disappointing 2003 superhero effort Hulk, expressing his regret at not delivering a fun take on the Green Goliath more akin to his recent appearance in The Avengers: “I learned quite a bit about CG from Hulk, and I wouldn’t have been able to do Life of Pi without that. But it’s easier to create an animal, because there exists a good reference — so a tiger or a hyena is easier than a 2,000-pound rage monster. The hardest thing to do is the weight, not the skin, because there’s no reference for something that size that is agile. And the technology’s improved, so you can have more details with Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk. My problem is that I took the whole thing too seriously. I should have had more fun with it, instead of all the psychodrama..!”

…During an interview with A.V. Club, Red Dawn and G.I. Joe: Retaliation star Adrianne Palicki spoke about her role as Wonder Woman in last year’s failed TV pilot, as well as expressing her desire to star in a superhero movie: “I would love to play Wonder Woman on the big screen. And if not, Supergirl. I know it’s not the coolest character, but I fell in love with her. My brother is a comic-book writer, and I was always in love with comics. My brother would always be reading all these comics with these dudes, and I was this little blonde, mousy-looking child, and I looked at this beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed chick, and I was like, ‘I want to be her!’ She was one of the very few that I found. Or Rogue [X-Men]. I’d really like to play Rogue…”

…And finally, one actor who doesn’t seem to share such enthusiasm for the comic book genre is End of Watch star Jake Gyllenhaal; having previously been linked to the roles of Spider-Man (as a replacement for Tobey Maguire in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2) and Batman (in Christopher Nolan’s reboot Batman Begins), Gyllenhaal told Short List that he’s in no rush to jump on the superhero bandwagon: “At a certain point you realize there’s always someone more interesting, talented and ready to do a role than you are – and you won’t get every role you go for. All I want right now is to hone my skills and become a better actor, not dream about wearing a cape. But you never know…”